Broadcaster Ray D’Arcy was told by RTÉ management in September that his contract would not be renewed, RTÉ’s director of audio Patricia Monahan says.
She denies D’Arcy was caught off guard with a decision not to renew his contract last week.
Monahan sat down with The Irish Times for a wide-ranging interview the week after the national broadcaster announced one of the biggest shake-ups in the Radio 1 schedule.
This newcomer to RTÉ – just a year in her current role – has been charged with managing the change, unsettling at least one long-established name in Irish broadcasting.
There has been much discussion around – and public interest in – how and when D’Arcy learned he wasn’t to be part of Monahan’s plan for Radio 1.
She says management had a number of conversations with D’Arcy about his future at Radio 1, ultimately telling him his contract would not be renewed after it expired on December 31st next.
“He had asked that, whatever the decision, we communicated in good time. So, we communicated it three months out from the end of his contract,” Monahan says.
“Even at the point where Ray’s last contract was signed [in 2023], he would have been told that there was a new director of audio coming – at that point, I hadn’t arrived yet – and that changes were likely to be
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